How we rank

A plain star average is a poor way to compare businesses. A company with 25 reviews and a perfect 5.0 would sit above one that has kept a 4.9 across 1,500 customers, even though the second record is far harder to earn. The TLM score fixes that by weighing two things together: how highly customers rate a business, and how many customers have rated it.

The score

For each business we take its average customer rating and its number of reviews, then pull the rating towards a cautious starting point of 4.5. The fewer reviews a business has, the stronger the pull. A business with thousands of reviews keeps a score very close to its own rating; a business with a few dozen sits noticeably lower until more customers weigh in. That is why two businesses with the same perfect rating can have different scores: the one with more reviews has proved it more often.

score = (v ÷ (v + m)) × R + (m ÷ (v + m)) × C

• R is the business's average rating out of 5.
• v is its number of reviews.
• C is a fixed starting point of 4.5, the same in every category.
• m is a caution weight: 200 in categories where reviews are plentiful, 60 where they are scarce.

The dark stars beside each business are a picture of this score out of five. They are our own measure. They are not a star rating copied from Google or from any review site, which is why each entry also links to the business's reviews on Google Maps.

Who is eligible

• The business is open and serves metropolitan Melbourne.
• It has its own website, and the website works. A business whose site is down, parked or still “coming soon” is left out until it is back. A social media page does not count as a website.
• It genuinely operates in Australia. We look on the business's own website for an ABN, a licence number or a real local address and team. An overseas company using a virtual Melbourne address does not qualify.
• It meets the review minimum shown at the top of its category: 50 in categories where reviews are plentiful, 20 where businesses naturally collect fewer.
• Companies with several branches are counted once, using the branch with the most reviews.

Where the ratings come from

Ratings and review counts are public figures from Google Maps. We do not copy reviews onto this site. On each listing you can load the current rating straight from Google Maps and follow the link to read the reviews there. Reviews aren't verified by Google, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified. Read the Google Maps policy on content posted by users.

Where the business details come from

The short description under each name, the suburb a business works from, the area it covers, the year it started and the ticks in each comparison table are taken from that business's own website and written up in our words. A tick means the website says so plainly. A dash means the website does not mention it, which is not the same as the business not offering it, so it is worth asking. Where a website gave us nothing we could stand behind, the entry is left short instead of padded out.

Featured listings

A category may show up to three listings labelled “Featured” and “Sponsored” above the ranking, in the order they were booked. Sponsored businesses can also appear, labelled, among the businesses suggested in the quote form. Featured placements are promotional and are always labelled. They do not change any business's score or its position in the ranked list.

Updates

Each category shows the date it was last recalculated. Scores move as businesses gain reviews, so positions can change from one update to the next.